Google launches Snapseed photo editor on Android, makes iOS version free

After acquiring the makers of Snapseed in September, Google (GOOG) on Thursday released the popular photo application for Android smartphones and tablets. Google also updated the iOS version of the app to add Google+ integration and some new filters, and it cut the price of the original app from $ 4.99 to free. Snapseed is a simple yet powerful photo editor from Nik Software that allows users to enhance...

Read More..

Rolling Stones hit NY for 50th anniversary gig

NEW YORK (AP) — “Time Waits for No One,” the Rolling Stones sang in 1974, but lately it’s seemed like that grizzled quartet does indeed have some sort of exemption from the ravages of time.At an average age of 68-plus years, the British rockers are clearly in fighting form, sounding tight, focused and truly ready for the spotlight at a rapturously received pair of London concerts last month.On Saturday,...

Read More..

Pfizer/Bristol drug cuts recurrence of blood clots – study

(Reuters) – A new blood clot preventer from Pfizer Inc and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co reduced the risk of recurrence of clots in veins and lungs and death by 80 percent with no increase in major bleeding in a study testing extended use of the drug.In the year-long trial of 2,486 patients who had been previously treated for the condition known as venous thromboembolism (VTE) the drug, apixaban, met the...

Read More..

Investors offer about $38.8 billion euros in Greek debt buyback: source

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece is set to purchase back about half of its debt owned by private investors, broadly succeeding in a bond buyback that is key to the country’s international bailout, a Greek government official said on Saturday.Greek and foreign bondholders offered the targeted 30 billion euros ($ 38.8 billion) in the deal, which is central to efforts by Greece’s euro zone and International...

Read More..

Anger at Australian radio station over royal hoax

LONDON (AP) — It started out as a joke, but ended in tragedy.The sudden death of a nurse who unwittingly accepted a prank call to a London hospital about Prince William‘s pregnant wife Kate has shocked Britain and Australia, and sparked an angry backlash Saturday from some who argue the DJs who carried out the hoax should be held responsible.At first, the call by two irreverent Australian DJs posing...

Read More..

‘Post-PC’ is more than just marketing buzz for Apple CEO Tim Cook

Apple (AAPL) is no stranger to ditching technologies when it deems them to no longer be useful. The company dropped the floppy disk for a CD-ROM drive on the first iMac and most recently has shifted to building MacBooks and iMacs without any physical disc drives. In his first televised interview on NBC’s Rockcenter with Brian Williams, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that he has “ditched physical...

Read More..

UK’s Kate and William “saddened” by nurse’s death

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate said on Friday they were “deeply saddened” by the death of a nurse who fell victim to a prank call from an Australian radio station seeking details of the duchess’s condition while she was in hospital for morning sickness.The King Edward VII hospital earlier confirmed the death of the nurse, Jacinda Saldanha.“Their Royal Highnesses were...

Read More..

GlaxoSmithKline in deal with MD Anderson on cancer drugs

(Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline signed a collaboration agreement with the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to develop new drugs that promote a patient’s immune system to attack cancer based on discoveries by Anderson researchers.Anderson, one of the world’s premier cancer research and treatment centers, announced the agreement on Friday. Under terms of the deal, it will receive an undisclosed upfront...

Read More..

US jobless rate at four-year low

7 December 2012 Last updated at 11:29 ETThe US added 146,000 jobs in November, official data shows, as the economy seemingly shrugged off storm Sandy.The unexpectedly strong performance brought the unemployment rate down to a four-year low of 7.7% of the workforce.The jobs figure was well above most analysts’ expectations and continued a recent surge that began in July.Weekly benefits data registered...

Read More..

Protesters surge around Egypt’s presidential palace

CAIRO (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of Egyptian protesters surged around the presidential palace on Friday and the opposition rejected President Mohamed Mursi‘s call for dialogue to end a crisis that has polarized the nation and sparked deadly clashes.The Islamist leader’s deputy said he could delay a December 15 referendum on a constitution that liberals opposed, although the concession only partly...

Read More..

Apple and Samsung return to court to battle over $1 billion verdict

...

Read More..

mtvU honors Frank Ocean, wounded Pakistani teen

NEW YORK (AP) — The mtvU network is honoring a rap superstar who detailed his love for another man and a Pakistani girl shot for her education advocacy as its Man and Woman of the Year.Frank Ocean, who earned six Grammy nominations Wednesday, published a letter online about his first love, a man, just as his “channel ORANGE” disc was being released. MtvU on Thursday called it “an incredibly brave...

Read More..

Vitamin D, calcium disappoint in dementia study

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Vitamin D and calcium supplements taken together in low doses offered no protection against dementia in a large U.S. study of older women, but scientists are still holding out hope for vitamin D alone.Past research has suggested that vitamin D might protect against memory loss and overall functional decline in the aging brain. But more than 2,000 women in the new study...

Read More..

Freeport downgraded as analysts question shift into energy, stock slips

(Reuters) – Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc fell further on Thursday, a day after it said it had struck deals to expand into energy by acquiring Plains Exploration & Production Co and McMoRan Exploration Co for $ 9 billion, and at least four analysts downgraded the miner’s stock.The transactions, valued at $ 19.6 billion including debt, were lambasted by investors and analysts...

Read More..

Toronto mayor to stay in power pending appeal of ouster

TORONTO (Reuters) – Toronto Mayor Rob Ford can stay in power pending an appeal of a conflict of interest ruling that ordered him out of his job as leader of Canada’s biggest city, a court ruled on Wednesday.Madam Justice Gladys Pardu of the Ontario Divisional Court suspended a previous court ruling that said Ford should be ousted. Ford’s appeal of that ruling is set to be heard on January 7, but a...

Read More..

Facebook’s Instagram cuts support for key Twitter integration

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc’s recently acquired photo-sharing service, Instagram, removed a key element of its integration with Twitter, signaling a deepening rift between two of the Web’s dominant social media companies.Instagram’s Chief Executive Kevin Systrom said Wednesday his company turned off support for Twitter “cards” in order to drive Twitter users to Instagram’s own website....

Read More..

Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck dead at 91

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, whose choice of novel rhythms, classical structures and brilliant sidemen made him a towering figure in modern jazz, has died at the age of 91, his longtime manager and producer Russell Gloyd said on Wednesday.Brubeck died of heart failure on Wednesday morning after he fell ill on his way to a regular medical exam at Norwalk Hospital, in Norwalk, Conn.,...

Read More..

With Teva at crossroads, new CEO set to unveil vision

NEW YORK/TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Teva Pharmaceutical Industries‘ new Chief Executive Jeremy Levin has promised investors it will be a very different company going forward. Next week he has to prove it.Levin’s ability to paint a bright future for the world’s biggest maker of generic drugs at a meeting with investors and analysts on December 11 in New York became a bit more difficult last week, when Teva...

Read More..

Citigroup in 11,000 staff cull

5 December 2012 Last updated at 14:17 ETCitigroup says it is cutting 11,000 jobs worldwide in an efficiency drive, with most of the jobs being lost in its consumer banking division.The bank said the move, which will see its headcount shrink by 4%, would cost it about $ 1bn (£621m) in pre-tax charges.Shares in the bank rose 7% following the announcement.The move comes two months after the bank’s former...

Read More..

Death toll from Philippine typhoon nears 300

NEW BATAAN, Philippines (AP) — Stunned parents searching for missing children examined a row of mud-stained bodies covered with banana leaves while survivors dried their soaked belongings on roadsides Wednesday, a day after a powerful typhoon killed nearly 300 people in the southern Philippines.Officials fear more bodies may be found as rescuers reach hard-hit areas that were isolated by landslides,...

Read More..

China goes crazy for iPhone 5: Preorders hit 100,000 units in under 24 hours

...

Read More..

Longtime editor at DC’s Vertigo imprint leaving

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — DC Entertainment says its executive editor and senior vice president of Vertigo — a groundbreaking imprint whose titles have included “Hellblazer,” ”DMZ” and “Sandman” — is leaving early next year.Karen Berger will step down in March after nearly 20 years at the helm, saying in a statement released by DC late Monday that she is ready for a professional change.During her tenure...

Read More..

After parent’s cancer death, one in five kids self-injure

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – One in five teens who lost one of their parents to cancer cut or burn themselves, compared to one in ten teens with two living parents, according to a new Swedish study.“We were very surprised to find that so many did it,” said lead researcher Tove Grenklo, a behavioral scientist at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.Cutting and burning is thought to be how some troubled...

Read More..

Insight: UK court reveals fear and mistrust at TNK-BP

LONDON (Reuters) – A former TNK-BP employee may have confessed to fraud out of fear during a meeting in the office of German Khan, the head of the oil company and one of Russia’s most prominent businessmen, according to a British High Court judge.In the first judicial account of encounters earlier this year between Khan and his former subordinate Igor Lazurenko, testimonies from the two men paint...

Read More..